Use a meat hook and chain or rope to affix the meat to a sturdy rafter in your aging location. If you don't have a meat hook, try using an old wire hanger inside the carcass to hang the deer.
Age the meat for at least a week. The quality and flavor of the venison is greatly improved by letting the meat sit for a week in a cool space with good air circulation. This causes the surface of the meat to dry, but don't worry--this can be trimmed off during the butchering process.
The meat will continue to grow more tender for days. Part 5. Prepare a clean work surface and assemble your tools. It's helpful to have a large cleaver and a boning knife for this task.
Make sure your tools are sharp and clean and that you've got a sterile work surface large enough to handle big pieces of meat. Try setting up a portable card table or picnic table and cleaning it with food-safe sanitizer before you begin. Split the backbone to separate the chuck meat front quarters from the round hind quarters.
Using a saw or a meat cleaver, find the point at which the rib cage meets the backbone it should be between the 12th and 13th rib and cut through the spine. Use firm pressure. After you've made an incision, you may need to put one hand on the hind quarters and one hand on the for legs or neck area and bend them toward each other to break the back in half. Remove the backstraps and tenderloins. Probably the most tender and tasty cut of venison, the tenderloins are the dark, lean, red meat found inside the cavity, running alongside the backbone.
The backstraps or ribeye are also called the "outside tenderloins," and are found opposite the tenderloin, along the backbone on the other side of the ribs. Use long even cuts as you pull the meat away from the bone.
You'll find these in both the hind quarters and rib section of the carcass. This is the best cut for steaks or roasts. Saw through the ribs, cutting them all the way down the backbone, near the spine. You can either separate the ribs, or leave them intact as whole side of ribs. The brisket can be found on the outside of the ribs, near where you've opened the belly for removing the organs. To do this, leave the tenderloins and backstraps in place, and remove the upper shoulders by cutting the muscles that attach them to the chest, working from the bottom the armpit up, lifting on the leg as you do so.
Since there are not joints in the bones connecting the front shoulders to the chest, a good, sharp knife is all you will need. Remove the shoulder and neck meat. Many people do not realize how much meat a deer's neck has in it. This meat isn't as good for steaks, but is ideal for grinding into sausage or cubing for stew meat.
Work your knife around the shoulder joint, twisting the arm away from the body as you loosen it. Separate the hams from the hock joints. The hams of the deer are the fatty meat found around the back hips or the rump of the deer, and the hocks are the remaining leg meat above the joint where you removed the hooves.
Hams make decent steaks and hocks are good for stewing. If you want to leave the bone in, cut the hindquarters from the deer by sawing through the pelvic bone on either side of the spine, then separate the ham from the hock by cutting through the joint.
If you want to remove the hams from the bone completely, work the hind legs off the hip by working your knife into the ball and socket joint, lifting the leg away from the carcass as you work. Cut the meat from the leg bone by shifting your knife parallel to the bone. You can immediately cut this meat into steaks or leave it whole for stewing or roasts. Part 6. Prepare it for freezing. With a very sharp boning knife, remove fat, cartilage, and any bruising, discoloration and dry spots that result from the aging process.
Much of the toughness or undesirable gaminess negatively associated with venison can be lessened by removing these parts. Make the cuts you'll want to eat.
The meat is at the perfect stage for butchering, which will also save time down the road when you're ready to defrost it and get cooking. If you have a meat grinder, take this opportunity to grind the neck and flank muscles for sausage or ground venison. Stock them in large quantities by the cash register. Ask every customer if they need over-the-elbow field dressing gloves. By Dave Maas November 04, Sign Me Up! Join other Outdoor Retailers who already get great content delivered right to their inbox.
If you don't want to bring your iPad into the bathroom, we can send you a magazine subscription for free! Photo by John Hafner. Popular Stories. September 20, Rocky Mountain RM Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted. Indicate the contents such as roast, ground, tenderloin, and so on.
If you measure out varying weights of burger packages, write the weight as well. With each meal, you can celebrate the successful hunter who provided it. The items listed above are what I feel are the bare essentials of home processing, but of course there are lots of other items that would be nice to own if you have the budget and space.
From stand-alone grinders to cubers and sausage stuffers, you can take this as far as you like. One of the rewards of hunting is the joy of providing your own natural food. I highly recommend it! This year, give home processing a try and enjoy getting both hands into the entire process from field to table.
Lindsay Thomas Jr. He has been a member of the staff since Prior to that, Lindsay was an editor at a Georgia hunting and fishing news magazine for nine years. Throughout his career as an editor, he has written and published numerous articles on deer management and hunting. He earned his journalism degree at the University of Georgia.
We are hunters from all walks of life who share a passion for deer. We believe it is our responsibility to ensure the future of wild deer, wildlife habitat and hunting. As the authority on all things deer, we blend the art of hunting with the science of management to create better deer and better deer hunting. Join Us Today. Keep meat on top of the ice or separated from it by plastic, and do not let meat sit in meltwater at any point during aging.
Knives and a Knife Sharpener As you already know if you skinned and quartered your own deer, a sharp knife is an important tool for any deer hunter. Here are the major roasts and cuts in a venison hindquarter, separated not including the shank.
Gloves will also make the job of field dressing a gut shot animal less daunting. To reduce the risk of cross contamination, use disposal gloves. For the environmentally conscientious hunter, bring two sets of reusable gloves. One for gutting and the other for butchering. Sanitize them thoroughly before each use.
To field dress, skin and quarter a deer, you only need two good knives: a heavier one for cutting through skin, hair, cartilage, and joints, and a more flexible, sharp knife for carving out meat. I also use the Havalon to carve meat around the rump and pelvis area before going in with the Buck knife to release the hindquarters at their hip ball joints, which are composed of cartilage.
If you tried doing this with the Havalon, the blade would break. Remember to clean and sharpen your knives before you leave home. Some hunters skip the step of splitting the pelvis, which can hold the rectum by residual tissues. The decision is largely personal preference, trial and error.
If you plan to hang your deer for a few days, however, you need to make sure that the rectum comes out as cleanly as possible. Traces of feces will taint and spoil meat. In a perfect world, a deer will pass in front of your crosshairs earlier in the day, allowing you to take your time. But so often—at least for my husband— you may shoot deer at the last moment, right before sunset.
Field dressing a deer in the dark has it challenges, so make sure you keep a headlamp with you at all times. They are small, portable and provide a hands-free light source. My favorite brands are Black Diamond and Petzl.
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